NHS forces Health IQ to change how it handles patient data

The data solutions company was found holding and processing data outside the UK.

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The NHS has found that data management company Health IQ isn't really adhering to data sharing rules, and is forcing the company into making a few changes to the way it does business.

According to a recently released audit (PDF can be found here), Health IQ broke a few rules listed in the Data Sharing Agreement. Namely, it was 'holding and processing data outside the UK'.

"As a result of this breach Health IQ had been required to delete NHS Digital data from the non-UK systems and to cease processing data in its London office. As a result of the incident, Health IQ has moved some of its infrastructure to a UK data centre,” the audit stated.

"This helps to ensure that organisations abide by the terms and conditions we set and data is kept safe and secure," said NHS Digital.

According to The Register, the audits were created after Sir Nick Partridge did a review and disclosed that 588 data sharing packages were ‘sold to a range of private sector organisations, typically for the purpose of analytics, benchmarking, and research, between March and April last year’.

Data sharing in health institutions is one of the hottest topics in the UK, but worldwide as well, especially after a few high-profile data breaches.